Jia Zhangke Epic, ‘We Shall Be All’ to Be Sold by France’s MK2 (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comPatrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief French shingle MK2 will handle international sales on “We Shall Be All,” a new epic from Jia Zhangke, China’s pre-eminent indie film director.Announced last year, the film has been a labor of love over more than 20 years for Jia.
His previous works, including “Platform,” “Unknown Pleasures” and “Still Life,” have chronicled the rapid economic development of China and its impact on people and society.
His most recent completed feature, “Ash Is Purest White,” appeared in competition in Cannes in 2018. While ostensibly about the evolving relationships of a handful of couples, “We Shall Be All,” consists of an assembly of footage that Jia and a minimalist crew have stopped, started and picked up again on multiple occasions since 2001. “I travelled with actors and a cameraman to shoot, without a script, without any obvious story, and didn’t really think about what to do with it until during the pandemic, which gave me time,” Jia tells Variety. “This is a work of fiction, but I have applied many documentary methods.
In assembling the different incidents that we’d filmed, I began to discover the storyline and have subsequently gone back and added the necessary structure. “It was fascinating to see how these [fictional] couples’ relationships changed as the world around them evolved.
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